Minimum Wage; Maximum Harm; P.E. Gresham

They played in the streets and sometimes got into minor mischief. At about that time we built a new college li brary. Moving more than 100,000 books was a considerable project. Money was scarce and costs were rising. A bid to move the books seemed exorbitant. We decided to train the town's young people to carry, haul in small hand wagons and wheelbarrows, and place the books in such a manner that our librarians could complete the process. The youngsters loved it. They earned some spending money and had the new self-esteem that comes from joining a work force. They were learning to go to work on time and feel the thrill of doing something significant for the college. We had hardly started when the comptroller was informed that we were breaking two laws -child labor and minimum wage. The town young were distressed, and the college was subjected to unnecessary expense. I remem bered the wise words of Walter Lippmann. In his book, The Good Society, he made the ob servation that good intentions in the field of government action for social change often bring about unexpected and unfortunate results. The Dr. Perry E. Gresham is President Emeritus and Distin guished Professor, Bethany College, Bethany, West Vir ginia.

legislators who perpetrated the laws meant to help the children and the poor. The effect of the laws was damage to both the poor and the eager young. Van Wyck Brooks called America one of the oldest countries in the world. He used the term "old" in a pejorative sense as neglected, run down, cluttered with trash, dilapidated, and smitten with desuetude. The work of cleaning up the countryside or doing minor chores around the house is inexpensive, but unlikely to command minimum wage. Old, handicapped, inexperienced, and otherwise limited workers could find occupation in such endeavors-but few employers would be willing to pay the minimum wage. Only the rich or the govern ment could afford to spend a qualified worker's wage for such marginal activity. The govern ment could do it only by increasing taxes. One's labor is the most valuable property one has to sell. If I wish to work for a small wage, and someone wishes to hire me, why should the law forbid it? The answer is that pol iticians find this kind of legislation to be pop ular with special interest groups and, at the same time, small drain on the public purse.

They are· apparently insensitive to the damage wrought against the young, the old, the handi capped, and the unemployed. In order to gain perspective on this problem, let us talk about houses. A person who wishes to sell a house would be in great trouble if the government were to establish a minimum price for houses. Suppose an average home sells for $100,000 in our bloated market. The builders might form a lobby for a minimum housing law that would permit no sale for less than $75,000. The politicians might weaken and pass the law.

What happens to the old person who loves his modest $50,000 home but, for reasons of age, must give it up? Think, also, of the poor person who needs shelter, but cannot afford a $75,000 home. Or we might think about commodities. Wheat now sells for about $3 per bushel. Sup pose Congress were to pass a law fixing $2 as the minimum price for wheat - this with severe penalties for those who sell wheat of lesser quality for $1. 75 per bushel. What could a farmer do with his crop of inferior wheat? Those who need less expensive grain for an imal food or anyone of many purposes would find the purchase of $1.75 wheat to be illegal. Both seller and buyer would be guilty of crime. Consider the effect if live cattle, now selling for $75 per hundredweight, were to fall victim to those attempting to jack up the price by law, and Congress would make selling cattle at $50 a hundredweight a felony. What happens to the marginal rancher whose cattle are worth no more than $50? An honest farmer or rancher, selling inferior cattle to eager buyers, might go to jail.

Lyndon Baines Johnson, myoid friend from Texas, loved to say, "Come now, let us reason together. " He then proceeded to ignore reason and rush to government intervention. If we would truly reason together we would know that many people have labor to sell, while but few have houses, wheat, and cattle to sell. Some such labor is substandard. Beginners are worth less on the market than experienced workers. Mentally handicapped persons, who could perform such useful but impecunious tasks as collecting abandoned trash or sweeping sidewalks, cannot sell their labor on the market for as much as those who handle computers or analyze the stock market. Why should Con gress feel free to pass laws that would send people to jail for selling their labor for less than the minimum wage ? Yet some prominent people are talking of raising it to $5 an hour! Experience has taught me that political opinions are not influenced by reason. People often misread their own best interests on ac count of group opinion. Many young people who are offered work which is legally excluded from the minimum wage law destroy their op portunities to gain experience, and spending 433 money, by demanding minimum wage. How hard it is to see clearly that the choice is not between $10 a day and the minimum wage, but between $10 a day and nothing.

I hear the cry that low-salaried workers are shockingly underpaid-that they do not make enough to live on. This is true. No one in his tory has ever been able to guarantee plenty for everybody. The idea that everybody can live at the expense of everybody else is very ap pealing, but impossible. There is a way for low-wage people to improve their earnings: De velop the skills that our society needs and a higher wage will be forthcoming. If a person is working for minimum wage at a fast-food place and wishes to make as much as $5 an hour, the way to accomplish this challenging feat is to do the work so well that the wage is increased, or else find an employer who has sense enough to hire competence and pay for it. The market, and not the government, is the open road to the happy land of higher wages. Those of you who chance to read this article will probably agree with it and say, "Ho hum, what can I do about it?" If, by accident, the article catches the attention of an advocate of minimum wage leg!slation, my words will be dismissed as the blather of an old and inexperi enced professor. The problem, however, will not go away. Repeated witness to the truth will have an influence on sensitive persons. Reac tion to overextended government will even tuate. High taxes and the loss of liberty are as relentless as the tides of the sea, and eventu ally, corrections will come. A will to learn and repeated witness will exert more influence than we might suppose.

Education is the only solution to the prob lem. When enough people come to understand the effects of minimum wage laws, the laws will change. Our land could have zero unem ployment if we would free ourselves from well meant restrictions. We could have a beautiful land with tidiness, cleanliness, and affordable help for the sick and the feeble. Special in terests would rise in moral wrath against so called "sweating" or "slave labor," but the workers and the employers would create a free and happy society wherein a person could sell his own labor to the highest bidder. Then we could truly sing, "Sweet Land of Liberty." 0 434 The Inequality of Labor Legislation by Deborah Walker J oe is a blue collar worker. He has worked hard all his life, saving and SkimPing., holding on to the dream that some day he would have his own business. Joe has always been in favor of all kinds of labor legislation designed to "protect" himself and his fellow workers. For example, he knew that minimum wage laws were designed to help the relatively unskilled workers by taking from relatively wealthy employers and giving to workers like himself. Joe did notice, however, that when these laws became effective the employers were not the only ones who had to "give." His best friend, Sam, who had just started with the firm, was soon laid off.